ADOT installs more than 2 dozen signs on I-17 to catch eye of wrong-way drivers

ADOT Alerts lets you know when wrong-way drivers are on the road and sends you traffic updates. Carly Henry/azcentral.com.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has installed "wrong way" signs on Interstate 17, the latest in a series of efforts aimed at tamping down the issue of errant motorists on Valley freeways.(Photo: Arizona Department of Transportation)

The 26 recently installed bright, red signs are affixed to bridges or other structures facing the wrong direction of traffic along a 15-miles stretch of I-17. The goal is to catch the eye of a wrong-way motorist before he or she causes a potentially fatal crash, ADOT officials said Tuesday.

Placed between the Interstate 10 "Stack" interchange and the Loop 101, the signs — 13 in each direction — are the latest in a series of steps ADOT and others have taken to tamp down the deadly phenomenon of wrong-way wrecks.

The effort is in addition to other signage at off-ramps across the Phoenix area. Crews have also added new arrows and reflectors on the travel lanes of dozens of ramps to indicate the correct direction of travel.

There were 245 wrong-way crashes tallied on Arizona divided highways from 2004 to 2014, according to a sweeping state report assessing the scope of the problem. Those wrecks resulted in 91 fatalities, and 65 percent of wrong-way drivers were found to have been impaired — on par with the national average for impairment among wrong-way drivers.